Windy City Gridiron
The Chicago Bears crushed the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night, 38 to 0, and even showed mercy on Buffalo, taking a knee before scoring their sixth touchdown of the game as time was winding down, or it could have been 45-0.
There’s plenty of reason for excitement after a lopsided outcome like that. The first team offense looked tremendous. Tyson Bagent looked the part as the team’s QB2. The defense didn’t allow the Buffalo offense to sustain drives. It was pure joy to watch.
Now the pessimists will talk about how Josh Allen and most of the starters did not play for Buffalo, and that’s certainly true to an extent.
Let’s be honest, it doesn’t matter if the Bears beat Buffalo 45-0 or 24-21; it’s preseason, and the result doesn’t matter. There is something, however, that is exciting to see, and we certainly didn’t see it last year.
The Chicago Bears operated like a well-organized professional football team.
The Bears were at the line of scrimmage consistently with plenty of time to spare. It gave them ample time to set up at the line of scrimmage and make the appropriate calls or any adjustments that needed to be made.
Last season, this offense was constantly plagued with either the play coming into the huddle late or the team coming out of the huddle late (or both). It didn’t give a rookie quarterback enough time to get set at the line of scrimmage and resulting in penalties like delay of game or a blown-up play.
Another thing that was a constant hindrance last season was the number of illegal formations and procedure-type penalties that happened constantly. They were drive killers, and there’s nothing worse than watching a team constantly trying to overcome shooting themselves in the foot.
Last night, not only were they clean getting out of the huddle and to the line of scrimmage, but we didn’t see piles of those types of presnap procedural penalties.
Let’s look at the Bears’ penalties last night. They were called for seven, and five were accepted.
Drew Dalman and Luke Newman were both called for offensive holding penalties. Jeremiah Walker was called for defensive pass interference. Austin Booker was called for a roughing the passer penalty.
In terms of procedural penalties, Stephen Carlson was called for a false start in the second half.
On the Bears’ final play of the first half that resulted in a Tyson Bagent sack, Ozzy Trapilo was called for illegal formation, and Luther Burden was called for an illegal shift. That one play was a complete disaster. But that was it. One play. The Bears failed to execute well on one play.
This was the first time we saw the Ben Johnson way being executed on the field. Forget the fantastic score; the Bears played clean, they didn’t shoot themselves in the foot, and the team reflected the attention to detail that Johnson has been hammering into them since May.
The Bears operated the way fans expect them...
